Here I am between piano on the left and computer on the right, composing and orchestrating a movement of my Zennor Symphony. It is a highly concentrated activity requiring me to run orchestral and choral sounds through my head, having played them on my computer via the Sibelius Programme, and to experiment with different instruments or combinations of instruments, or different “tunes”, motifs and notes, often tried out on the piano, hence my piggy-in-the-middle position.
When you consider that I am having to handle – or rather perhaps, juggle in the air – anything up to two dozen simultaneous staves of music at any one time, it will strike you that this is a situation in which one can lose oneself in introversion, and which gobbles up hours of time voraciously. Small wonder, then, that Covid and lockdown have had little effect in such a situation, except perhaps in affording even more peaceful (therefore more helpful) than usual surroundings, and making the idea of burying oneself at home, closeted between computer and piano for hours on end, slightly more normal than would otherwise be the case!
Another major activity shackling me to the computer is work on my book about female and black classical music composers, which I am desperately trying to complete, so again the Covid situation has had little effect.
All this may give the impression that I am a computer nerd or even that I like computers: not so! My computer is simply a tool (an excellent one, granted) for music composition, a convenient means of creative writing and a receptor for emails. Outside these areas I am more than happy to be nowhere near it, preferring handwriting, playing the piano, drawing and painting and physical activities – things I consider more “normal”!
Brian
